Welcome to Black Mesa - Laser puzzle (DEV.BLOG)

In this little dev. blog about the construction of the laser level, we would like to give an insight into the collaboration of our work and the construction of a level in which Opposing force first real puzzle was introduced: the laser puzzle.

To finish this within a limited time of 1 months, a group of several developers were brought together into a dedicated project team. In the original game, the puzzle consists of a few lasers with an iconic colour: green and purple, and the player is challenged to explore their surroundings. During a brainstorming session, it soon became clear that there was a need for a more elaborate puzzle so that the player could make more use of his surroundings to get to the next environment. The idea was to move the lasers through a few locations so that there would be several options to get to a solution.

With this idea, a smaller project team was formed to work out the puzzle together and so that others could continue working on other tasks. The project team consists of a level designer, an artist with knowledge of Vscripts to limit the number of entities in the level, some environment artists to work out the different models and textures, and a sound designer to make the sounds for the lasers. A dedicated chat allows for easy consultation and adjustment.

LANDER

Hey! My name is Lander, and I have been working as a level designer and sky-artist for Tripmine Studios for several years now. For the level with the laser, I was in charge of finishing and detailing the level, creating some lens flares for the lasers, and managing the project team. During the fine collaboration with my fellow developers, we were able to make rapid progress and finish this puzzle on short notice. The lens flares add more depth to the visual effect of the lasers. Also, the detailing and finishing of details such as decals/overlays/light effects/... adds to the atmosphere of the level. I aimed for a relatively dark environment to make the lasers stand out more, helping new players recognize their importance in this level.

To limit the number of entities in Hammer (source engine), Tyler used VScript. This is a convenient and powerful way to execute different commands without incorporating many separate entities into the level.

While experimenting with the features of the puzzle, a separate test-level was created so that both the level and the puzzle could be worked on in parallel. The contour of the level was recreated in the test-level so that the correct distances were obtained. Afterwards, the puzzle was put together in the final level. During the creation of the level, a lot of reference material was collected. Both via the internet and in a real lab. By analysing the different facets of a real optical laser test chamber, we were able to take the level to a new level.

BEAN

Hi! I'm Bean. I was recently brought onto the team for texture and model work. For the laser level, I was tasked with creating the textures for the laser emitter, the lasers themselves, as well as modeling the mirrors for the puzzle. A fellow member of the team Jancias provided some excellent real-life references which helped me keep an artistic cohesion between the two separate entities. The mirror models themselves were my first real attempt at hard surface modeling, and I think they turned out pretty well all things considered.

Tyler

Hey there! My name is Tyler,